Imaging and displaying of wide view images, including panoramic images (images with a wide field of view in a horizontal plane) and omnidirectional images (images with a field of view covering all directions), are becoming widespread. For example, see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2011-076249.
In a case of displaying a wide view image having a field of view covering all directions on a screen, if the wide view image is displayed in a viewing area of the screen, the visibility is lowered. A method for solving the problem is that partial images with field of views covering mutually different directions are displayed in a plurality of viewing areas.
When displaying the partial images of the different directions in the plurality of viewing areas, an image of a predetermined direction may be fixed in several of the viewing areas. In this case, operations of moving and resizing the image are not performed with respect to such viewing areas.
A method of enabling the moving and resizing operations to be performed with respect to a viewing area is conceivable. However, it is preferred that the moving and resizing operations can be performed with respect to the viewing areas independently of each other.
When a wide view image is displayed in a plurality of viewing areas, there is no user interface which provides appropriate operations for the characteristics of the wide view image. The problem is that a user is unable to perform a desired operation on the wide view image.